Shock absorber for aerial delivery apparatus



Oct, 18, 1949. T. PARSONS 2,434,353

SHOCK ABSORBER FOR AERIAL DELIVERY APPARATUS Filed Nov. 15, 1945 IN VEN TOR.

fi o afi du/ nan/017w IrroH/vEY Patented Oct. 18, 1949 SHOCK ABSORBER FOR AERIAL DELIVERY APPARATUS Theophilus Parsons, Washington, D. .0.

Application November 15, 1945, Serial No. 628,946

I (Cl. 244-138) (Granted under the act or March 3, 1883, as

8 Claims.

amended April 30, 1928; 370 O. G. 757) The invention described herein, if patented, may be manufactured and used by or for the Government for governmental purposes, without the payment to me of any royalty thereon.

paratus of my invention, showing the relative position of the bumper and package at the moment the bumper contacts the ground. Fig. 2 is a fragmentary perspective view of the package This invention relates to aerial delivery appaholding harness for my aerial'delivery apparatus. ratus and more particularly'to an apparatus for Fig. 3 is a side elevational view of my aerial deeasing the landing of packages delivered from livery apparatus at the time when the package aircraft i flight, being delivered contacts the ground, and Fig. 4

At the present time it is a common practice to is a fragmentary perspective view of a modified deliver urgently needed commodities of many form of harness. 1 kinds by airplane when the time is too short to Referring to the drawing wherein a simplified permit delivery by other means of transportation embodiment of my invention is shown, and more or when the point to which delivery is to be made particularly to Figs. 1 and 2, it will be seen that is remote and in accessible to other means of the aerial delivery apparatus includes a harness transportation. In the latter case, it may be adapted tobe secured about the package. In the impossible for the aircraft to land, and any form of the invention illustrated, this harness packages-which are to be delivered will have to consists of a strap in constructed from leather, be dropped while it is in flight. At .the present webbing or other suitable material and provided time the shock of landing packages under such at one end with a buckle II for engaging along conditions is eased by landing the package with the opposite end of the strap thus adapting it a parachute, by means of special packaging deto be secured about packages of various sizes signed to absorb the shock of landing and usually and shapes. Secured along a portion of the strap by a combination of both. The high cost of this adjacent its free end is a ring or eyelet I2-which type of packaging, the time and effort involved is adapted to be secured to'the shroud lines I3 in'packing the articles to be delivered in these 5 of a parachute l4 either by having the shroud packages and the fact that even this special lines directly connected to the ring l2 as shown packaging is not sufiicient to permit the aerial in the drawing or by having the ring connected delivery of delicate or fragile articleswithout to a riser of conventional construction which in danger of injury upon landing has retarded the turn is connected to the shroud lines.

more widespread use of aerial delivery. For delivering relatively small packages of light Accordingly, it is an object of my invention to We ght, a harness constructed as shown in the provide a new and improved shock absorber for drawings and just described will be suitable, but use in the aerial delivery of packages which is for relatively heavy packages or for packages of provided with a bumper resiliently connected to a ge size, a harness consisting of several P the package and adapted to contact the ground in age encircling s ps ar to strap lliyand seadvance of the package so that the shock of land- Cu to y means of ps l5, will. ing is absorbed by the bumper and the resilient b ne sa y. Each of the pac a e c c connecting means. straps in av harness t ype Would preferably Another object of the invention is the provision be Connected to the shroud lines i3 0f the p of a new and improved shock absorber for the '40 Chute M by means of conventional risers 23. aerial delivery of packages which is adaptable Secured along the portion o strap ch ixfor use on packages of various sizes and shapes tends along the-vertical Side Of he pa a is a and which may be easily modified to make it plurality of y bolts three being show n adaptable for the delivery of packages of various 2 0f the drawing- These eye bolts are wei hts, adapted to loosely receive the upper end of, an

A further object of the invention is the prolon a d r d-li bumper n of light wei ht vision of a new and improved shock absorber for metal other suitable material which [is p the aerial delivery of packages which is simple d d wit a h ad I8 e a a l wi h t upperand sturdy in construction, compact and light in One O t e eye bolts I6 to limit downward moveweight, inexpensive to manufacture and which f the u pe Wh a package is descendmay be used repeatedly, ing. A resilient connection betweqi the bumper These and other objects of the invention will .l! and the strap 0 harness iii is p ovi d by an become apparent from the following description elongatediiehsion Spring Which is c ed at and accompanying drawing in which Fig. 1 is a its lower end to a bracket 20 secured to the harside elevational view of the aerial delivery 9 3- ness as indicated in Figs. 1 and 2 and a s pp end is connected to the head I! of the bumper. The lower end of the bumper rod I1 is provided with a weight 2| which is removably secured thereto so that the weight may be changed in accordance with the weight of the package being delivered for a purpose to be described hereinafter.

In using the improved shock absorbing apparatus just described, the strap I is tightly secured about the package 22 with the bumper rod I'I extending vertically downwardly with respect to the package when the latter is held in the position it will assume while descending from an airplane after the parachute ll has opened and with the ring "positioned on the upper side of the package. bumper rod I'I tends to maintain the package in this position with the bumper vertical and reduces the amount of swaying which would otherwise occur so that the end or the bumper rod will contact the ground first and will be in a vertical position or only slightly canted therefrom. Upon striking the ground, the descent of the bumper rod I! will be abruptly stopped, but since the package 22 is not rigidly secured to the bumper rod it will continue in its descent, traveling axially of bumper rod I! (as shown in Fig. 3), and this continued downward movement of the package will be resisted by the spring i9 so that the descent of the package will be gradually eased instead of being abruptly stopped. For this reason, when the package strikes the ground, the shock to the contents of the package is not nearly as great as it would be in the absence of a bumper, and delicate or fragile articles of all kinds may be delivered from airplanes in flight with very little or no breakage.

Although I have described a single embodiment of the invention of simplified construction, it will be obvious that many modifications in the size, arrangement and construction of parts are possible. Therefore, I do not desire to have my invention limited to the specific embodiment described but desire to include therein all those modifications coming within the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A shock absorber for use in the free aerial delivery of packages comprising a harness adapted to be secured about a package to be delivered, a parachute for retarding the descent of said package. an elongated bumper rod and a weighted groun -contact member laterally of said harness and adapted to precede said package in its descent, and resilient means for resisting the continued downward movement oi said package after said ground-contact member contacts the ground whereby after said ground-contact member contacts the ground, said package travels axially of said elongated bumper rod at a gradually decreasing pace and strikes the ground at a substantially decreased rate of speed.

2. A shock absorber for use in the free aerial delivery of packages comprising a harness adapted to be secured about a package, an elongated bumper rod and a weighted ground-contact member laterally of and longitudinally movable with respect to said harness and package, and resilient means connecting said bumper rod and harness for resisting relative movement therebetween whereby after ground contact of said ground-contact member said package travels axially of said bumper rod at a gradually decreasing pace and strikes the ground at a substantially decreased rate of speed.

The weight 2| at the end of the,

3. A shock absorber for use in the free aerial delivery of packages comprising a harness adapted to be secured about a package, an elongated bumper rod laterally of said harness, said rod having a free end and being longitudinally movable with respect to said package, ground-contact means laterally of said harness for urging said bumper into position for contacting the ground in advance of said package upon the aerial delivery thereof, said means comprising a weight at the free end of said bumper rod, and resilient means connecting said bumper rod and harness for resisting relative movement therebetween whereby after ground-contact of said ground-contact means said package travels axially of said bumper rod at a gradually decreasing pace and strikes the ground at a substantially decreased rate of speed.

4. A shock absorber as set forth in claim. 3 wherein means are provided for guiding the downward movement of said package with respect to said bumper rod.

5. A shock absorber for use in the free aerial delivery of packages comprising a harness adapted to be secured about a package, a parachute for retarding the descent of said package, an elongated bumper rod and a weighted ground-contact member laterally of said harness and secured to said harness in position to contact the ground in advance of said packages upon the aerial delivery thereof, meansassociated with said bumper rod and said harness for permitting relative movement of said bumper rod with respect to said liarness, and resilient means for resisting relative movement between said harness and bumper rod after ground contact of said ground-contact member in the aerial delivery of said package, said package travels axially of said elongated bumper rod at a gradually decreasing pace and strikes the ground at a substantially decreased rate of speed.

6. A shock absorber for use in the free aerial delivery of packages comprising a harness adapted to be secured about a package, a parachute for retarding the descent of said package, an elongated bumper rod laterally secured to said harness in position to contact the earth in advance of said package upon aerial delivery thereof, means associated with said bumper rod and said harness for permitting relative movement of said bumper rod with respect to said harness, resilient means for resisting relative movement between said harness and bumper rod, a weight on the lower end of said bumper rod laterally of said harness for urging the same to project vertically downwardly with respect to said package during the descent thereof and for initially contacting the ground, whereby after ground contact of said weight said package travels axially of said elongated bumper rod at a gradually decreasing pace and strikes the ground at a substantially decreased rate or speed.

7. A shock absorber for use in the free aerial delivery of packages comprising a harness adapted to be secured about a package, a parachute for retarding the descent of said package, an elongated bumper rod secured to said harness laterally thereof, and a weighted ground-contact member associated with said rod laterally of said harness in position to contact the ground in advance of said package upon the aerial delivery thereof, means associated with said bumper rod and said harness for permitting relative movement of said bumper rod with respect to said harness, resilient means for resisting relative movement between said harness and bumper rod, and means for guiding the vertical movement of said bumper rod, whereby after ground contact of said groundcontact member in the aerial delivery of said package, said package travels axially of said elongated bumper rod at a gradually decreasing pace strikes the ground at a substantially decreased rate of speed.

8. A shock absorber for use in the free aerial delivery of packages comprising a harness adapted to be secured about a package, an elongated bumper rod, means for securing bumper rod laterally on said harness, said means being adapted to permit longitudinal movement of said package with respect to said bumper rod, resilient means for resisting movement between said harness and said bumper rod, and a weighted groundcontact member on said elongated bumper rod laterally of said harness, whereby after ground contact of said ground-contact member in the aerial delivery of said package, said package travels axially of said elongated bumper rod at a gradually decreasing pace and strikes the ground at a substantially decreased rate of speed.

THEOPHILUS PARSONS.

REFERENCES CITED UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 438,830 Yagn Oct. 21, 1890 1,041,620 Greer Oct. 15, 1912 1,787,294 Ward Dec. 30, 1930 1,981,461 Miller Nov. 20, 1934 2,077,910 Thomson Apr. 20, 1937 2,151,395 Smith Mar. 21, 1939 2,314,881 Helmick Mar. 30, 1943 2,371,640 Marnson et al. Mar. 20, 1945 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 843,985 France Apr. 11, 1939 Certificate of Correction Patent No. 2,484,853 October 18, 1949 THEOPHILUS PARSONS It is hereby certified that error appears in the printed specification of the above numbered patent requiring correction as follows:

Column 4, line 35, before the word after insert whereby;

and that the said Letters Patent should be read with this correction therein that the same may conform to the record of the case in the Patent Ofiice.

Signed and sealed this 14th day of February, A. D. 1950.

THOMAS F. MURPHY,

Assistant Commissioner of Patents. 

